NEW YORK – Natan Schulte credits a specific strategy that helped him get the job done.
Schulte (20-3-1 MMA, 9-0-1 PFL) engaged in easily the best fight of the night, when he outlasted Loik Radzhabov (13-2-1 MMA, 2-2-1 PFL) in a five-round battle at the 2019 PFL Championship on Tuesday at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York to win the lightweight title and $1 million.
One pivotal strategy was his leg kicks, that Schulte says, were a big part of his game plan to open things up for him offensively.
“That was a big part of the strategy,” Schulte said through a translator at the post-fight news conference. “My striking coach, Katel Kubis, and Luciano Macarrao put this game plan to get his mobility compromised, and since he changes stance all the time, and I do too. So I started kicking both legs and he was not comfortable in either one of them, so that opened a lot for my striking as well.”
It was the second year in a row that Schulte won the lightweight playoffs, and when asked if he’d entertain a superfight with fellow two-time tournament winner, featherweight Lance Palmer, Schulte didn’t seem too keen. He admitted he has a hard time making the 155-pound limit.
“There’s two different weight divisions. I kind of suffer a little bit to make lightweight,” Schulte said. “I don’t believe that he’s going to want to go to lightweight, and we both stay in the division, it’s a natural course.”
